COMPLIANCE ROUNDTABLE: State Licensing and Examination Trends

Justin Wiseman

Vice President, Managing Regulatory Counsel, Mortgage Bankers Association

Justin Wiseman is Vice President and Managing Regulatory Counsel in the Public Policy and Industry Relations department at the Mortgage Bankers Association. Justin manages MBA’s Regulatory Policy team that covers legal issues, trends in litigation, regulatory compliance matters, and servicing as well as provides strategic direction to advance MBA member priorities on regulatory and legal matters. This team also analyzes pending rules and legislation, provides comments on behalf of MBA members on pending rules or regulations and helps develops MBA’s posture towards innovation and innovation policy. Prior to this, he staffed MBA’s Loan Administration committee, providing policy development insights and working with stakeholders to advocate on behalf of the industry.

Melissa Koupal, CMCP

Senior Vice President, Servicing Risk and Compliance, CMG Financial

Melissa Koupal is the Senior Vice President of Loan Integrity for loanDepot.com, LLC, a full-service direct lender headquartered in Foothill Ranch, California since the company launched in 2009. In this position, she oversees the compliance management system, servicing mortgage compliance, licensing, consumer complaints, compliance quality control and regulatory examinations and enforcement matters for all channels of loanDepot. The company currently holds more than 18,000 corporate and loan officer licenses across all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Since 2008, Koupal has owned and led Reglist which is comprised of more than 1,900 mortgage compliance professionals specializing in the areas of compliance and legal issues in the residential mortgage field.

Jedd Bellman

Senior Counsel, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, LLP

Jedd R. Bellman, Senior Counsel in the Washington, D.C., office of Orrick, assists banks, mortgage companies, auto lenders, debt collectors, money services businesses and fintechs on a variety of licensing, regulatory and enforcement matters, bringing a wealth of consumer financial services experience gleaned from more than a decade in government service.

Krista Cooley

Partner, Mayer Brown LLP

Krista Cooley is a partner in Mayer Brown’s Washington DC office and a member of the Consumer Financial Services group. She concentrates her practice on federal regulatory enforcement and compliance issues. She represents companies in the mortgage lending, mortgage servicing, title insurance and real estate industries in connection with administrative and regulatory compliance matters. Krista defends clients subject to government audits, investigations and enforcement proceedings before, among others, HUD, the VA, USDA, DOJ, CFPB and state banking departments in cases involving the False Claims Act, the Program Fraud Civil Remedies Act, Mortgagee Review Board proceedings and RESPA enforcement matters.

Haydn J. Richards, Jr.

Partner, Bradley

Haydn Richards, a Partner with Bradley, is one of the foremost leaders in state financial services law and licensing matters. Haydn counsels clients on all aspects of financial services licensing and compliance, state law, the NMLS, and CFPB-related compliance matters. Selected by his peers to serve as Chair of the Industry Advisory Council of the American Association of Residential Mortgage Regulators from 2018-2020, Haydn regularly interacts with state regulators on behalf of industry members. He has individually resolved financial services enforcement actions in 45 of the 50 states and the District of Columbia, perhaps more than any other attorney in this space. Haydn regularly assists clients with the largest transactions in the industry in a creative and company-focused manner.

John D. Socknat, Esq.

Partner, Ballard Spahr LLP

John D. Socknat is Practice Co-Leader of Ballard Spahr's Mortgage Banking Group and Managing Partner of the Washington, D.C., office. John uses his knowledge and breadth of the business issues affecting the residential and commercial mortgage banking industries and the legal landscape to advise clients on compliance and licensing matters under state and federal law. John's clients include mortgage and consumer finance companies, financial institutions, servicers, collection agencies, title companies, real estate brokers, and secondary-market investors. John is the Chair of the Industry Advisory Council to the American Association of Residential Mortgage Regulators (AARMR) and a member of the SRR Industry Advisory Council.